Expressions & History - 1

Every language has a bazillion expressions, and English is certainly no exception to this fact. Here’s just two of them, as well as a brief history of their origins.

During the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, a goat was usually sacrificed in religious ceremonies to God | foto: Profimedia.cz

Angličtina na iDNES.cz
VŠECHNY LEKCE ZDE

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Expresially for you: here’s some history behind two expressions

Square Meals
There’s an expression in American English that "people should eat three or four square meals a day." In the 1960s and 70s, it was only three. Today, people often say "three or four."

So where exactly then did the phrase "square meal" come from?

According to the Americans, a "square meal" is one that has all essential food groups: meat or poultry (fish), dairy and vegetable products, and grains and fruit. However, this expression really isn’t American. It in fact originated with the British, and it meant at the time it was first invented in the Middle Ages, something different entirely.

In Old England, there was a time when dinner plates were shaped like squares, instead of round like they are today. Thus, the phrase "having a square meal" was born.

While the Americans "claim" this phrase as theirs, it really isn’t.

Scapegoat
When someone or something is the "scapegoat" this means they are supposedly the reason or cause that something happened.

The origin of this phrase really isn’t English. Instead, it was translated from Hebrew into English.

During the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, a goat was usually sacrificed in religious ceremonies to God, and a second goat would be set free to supposedly carry the burden of people’s sins.

A similar phrase was also adopted by the ancient Greeks, who would set a goat lose and then beat it up physically because it carried everyone’s sins. In ancient times, it seems that goats were everyone’s favorite animal to "blame," for various reasons.

                     Joke of the Day

A Czech woman and an American man get in a car accident, and both of their cars are destroyed. Amazingly, they did not get hurt.

"I see you’re American," said the Czech woman. "America is a religious country, so this must be a sign from God. Think about this: I am a woman, and you are a man. Both of us did not get hurt. This must be a sign from God that we were meant to meet each other, wouldn’t you agree?"

"Yes," replied the American.

"And look, this bottle of wine here, it is also undamaged. This must be another sign from God that we were meant to drink it together. Here, you are a guest in my country, you go first."

"Yes," replied the American, as he took the bottle of wine from her and started to drink from it.

After he finished half the bottle, the American gave it back to the Czech woman and said, "Here, it’s your turn to drink now."

"That’s OK," replied the Czech woman, "I think I’ll pass and just wait for the police to get here." :-)

Angličtina vychází od pondělí do pátku.

Najdete ji také v bezplatném deníku Metropolitní expres.

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